Cooling towers are heat exchangers, designed to dissipate unwanted heat to the atmosphere. The cooling tower rental market is spread across a wide range of end-use industries, including nuclear and thermal power plants, petroleum refineries, petrochemical plants, food processing plants, and HVACR. The market for cooling tower rental is booming, owing to the needs of current industries for temporary cool water. Renting cooling towers is relatively inexpensive and is considered as a dependable means of removing heat, particularly during times of sudden incremental heat loads, emergency shutdowns, and repair and maintenance. With the availability of a wide variety of temporary cooling towers with different specifications, the industry can quench its requirement for shorter durations and hence, save a lot of unnecessary expenditure..

The global cooling tower rental market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 5.18%, from 2017 to 2022, to reach a projected USD 0.99 Billion by 2022. The growth will be mainly driven by rise in HVACR deployments and growth in industrial activities across globe.

The report segments the cooling towers rental market, on the basis of type, into wet, dry and hybrid. The wet segment led the cooling towers rental market in 2015. Wet cooling tower rental services are largely consumed for power generation by utilities and manufacturing facilities apart from other applications. Dry cooling tower rental market is expected to grow most swiftly during the forecast period (2017 to 2022) mainly due to the increasing implementation of energy efficiency targets globally and growth of HVACR applications in the expanding commercial building and construction industry.

Global cooling tower rental market, by design, is segmented into mechanical draft and natural draft of which Mechanical is the fastest growing segment. Manufacturing plants, commercial buildings, public buildings, and utilities mainly utilize cooling tower rentals for power generation application. Growing demand for global power requirement, especially in regions such as Europe, North America and Asia Pacific is contributing the demand growth for Mechanical draft cooling tower rentals.

The report further segments cooling towers rental market, by capacity which include up to 500 tons, 500-1,000 tons, 1,000-1,500 tons, 1,500-3,000 tons and above 3000 tons. The 1,000-1,500 ton capacity range cooling tower rental are expected to grow at the highest CAGR in the forecast period. This capacity range cooling towers are mostly rented for commercial, industrial or manufacturing facilities, indoor and outdoor applications, and high-temperature applications.

In terms of end-use, industrial segment hold the largest market share in the cooling tower rental market. The industrial end-use segment has been further segmented into oil & gas, chemicals and petrochemicals, construction, food and beverage, metal & mining and utilities. Some of the processes and industries that use rental cooling include chemical, ethanol production, metals, mining, oil refining, textiles and steel production. Cooling towers play a significant role in various industries as they help overcome the issues of overheating of plants. Overheating may cause fire mishaps, breakdown of plants, and damage to machines. Cooling towers dissipate heat into the atmosphere through diffusion to prevent these concerns. Therefore, petroleum refineries, natural gas processing plants, petrochemical and chemical plants, nuclear power plants, and fossil-fuel power plants install these towers to prevent risks of accidents caused by overheating.

North America is projected to be the largest market for cooling tower rental due to its stringent environmental norms and increasing investments in major industries such as oil & gas, power utilities, metals and mining. This market is also expected to boost global cooling tower rental market during the forecast period.

The major factor restraining the growth of the cooling tower rental market is that it’s nature of being highly fragmented and stiff competition.

Some of the global players in this market include Aggreko, United rental, Sunbelt Rental, Caterpillar, Johnson Controls, Engie Refrigeration, together they hold a strong share of the global cooling tower rental market.

Innovators in the competitive leadership mapping are vendors that have demonstrated substantial product innovations as compared to their competitors. They have very focused product portfolio. However, they have a moderate growth strategy for their business in this market. The companies which have demonstrated strong innovation capabilities in the cooling tower rental market are Johnson Controls, Baltimore Aircoil Australia, Trane, Carrier Rental Systems, Jacir, and ICS Cool Energy.

They are vendors with niche product offering who are starting to gain traction in the market. They do not have strong business strategies when compared to other established vendors. They might be new entrants in the market and may require some time before gaining a significant position in the market. Companies, such as Rental Power, Power Factor, Cooling Power, and Aerco Systems fall under this category in the cooling tower rental market.

Cooling tower rental market (Global) competitive leadership mapping, 2017

Source: Annual Reports, Press Release, Expert Interviews, and MarketsandMarkets Competitive Benchmarking